James Webster succeeds Richard Agar at struggling Wakefield Trinity

Wakefield Trinity coach Richard Agar has stepped down from his post and been replaced by assistant James Webster. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

Richard Agar has resigned as the coach of Wakefield Trinity after almost three years in charge. He will be succeeded by James Webster, an Australian who had been assisting him after first coming to England to play for Hull KR.

Agar had made his decision well before Sunday’s defeat at Bradford, which cut Wakefield’s safety cushion at the bottom of the Super League table to six points.

“I spoke with the board of directors a number of weeks ago outlining the reasons why I had decided to look for another job in the game at the end of the season,” said Agar, who succeeded John Kear at Wakefield after losing his previous job at Hull FC to Peter Gentle in 2011.

The main factor was the financial constraints that forced Agar to build a team from scratch in a matter of months before the 2012 season – making their success in reaching the play-offs all the more admirable – and again after the collapse of another off-field regime last September.

That has made avoiding the two relegation places this season their only realistic goal, and despite Sunday’s defeat they remain on course, six points ahead of the Bulls with games running out – and with a home game against bottom-of-the-table London Broncos in Webster’s first game in charge on Friday week, when victory would lift them above Salford to the dizzy heights of 11th.

Michael Carter, the Hull-based businessman who rescued Wakefield from administration and possible extinction last year, praised Agar as ‚“an outstanding person” who has “handled himself with superb dignity and worked tirelessly for the cause throughout all the tribulations the club has endured during his tenure”.

Agar hopes to return to the Super League with another club next season, and given his work with the France national team during last year’s World Cup, the Catalan Dragons shape as one obvious possibility.

Wakefield’s Championship neighbours Featherstone Rovers have reinforced their determination to press to either join or replace them in the Super League next season by signing three players with a fair amount of top-level experience – Jason Crookes and Chris Green from Hull, and the Warrington forward Danny Bridge – on loan, with their major financial backer Feisal Nahaboo promising further recruits for the recently-appointed coach Andy Hay.

Featherstone are seven points behind the Championship leaders Leigh, who extended their club-record run of victories to 16 at Workington on Sunday and are relishing the prospect of aiming for an unlikely 17th at Leeds in Friday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final.